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The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.

Burial smells like dirt. i mean this in the most complementary of ways. Fresh,moist dirt,the kind one experiences out in the garden whilst planting new rosebushes/lily bulbs,etc. Dirt and a nice undertone of patchouli and fresh flowers. i want a *big* sized bottle of this one,too (i have only a sample,currently).

EDIT: Added Lab's description --Shollin

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I have a bottle and I can totally pull out the Juniper and rose smell in it, the patchouli takes a while to come out but it is there. Its My favorite scent to wear to a show or more as an *everyday* kinda scent. I love this one!

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One of my favorite earthy deep scents. I cannot pinpoint the notes, but it seems to me to be the scent of sweet brown earth, a touch of pine and juniper, and the faintest hint of rose. It is a lovely dark perfume, and works well on both me and my husband.

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I like this scent, although my mother and sister both said it smelled like an "old lady's attic."

It is a very strong scent that brings to mind early spring gardening, when you're using a trowel to dig up dirt that has been untouched all winter - not a stale smell but not a "happy green summery grassy" dirt smell, either. A sad, yet hopeful earth smell.

There are swirls of rose and patchouli and bay leaves and rosemary on top of the dirt smell, but not in any way that one is distinct from the other. They make up a complex, herbal, calming sensation. Kind of like a cyclical growing season - things die and turn to earth, and then new things can grow from it.

It is a smell that is not innocent nor fresh - but more like one that you'd want to wear on a day that you want to feel older, confident but not brash, and like nothing can faze you because you've seen it all before and its just part of an ongoing cycle.

It's been too heavy for me to wear lately, and with the more oils I've tried, I think I prefer other earthy scents like Ace of Pentacles and Black Forest.

Edited May 13, 2004 by ladylatemar

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Ooo, I'm liking this. At first sniff, I was turned off by the juniper, but from my smellings lately, wet juniper is just too sharp for me. When it mellows tho, it becomes a nice refreshing soft mint type smell. And plus, this is roses so I have to love it. And I do love the floral mix on top. With the dirty bottom, its far from cloying, instead relaxing and sweet, what real flowers smell like. I'm not sure what wet, fertile dirt is sposed to smell like (we're not allowed to garden much in my neighborhood), but i'm assuming from this forum that all that darkness on the bottom is what it smells like. Whichever way, yes, this is a composed dark rose, what a stolid olderwoman would smell like. Just the slightest bit of romance buried in a hard, finite core. I'd imagine this would be a good work smell because the darkness will make them take you seriously, but the rose will let you linger in their minds.

I really should just give up and order everything Beth has with roses in it.

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An I really should just give up and stop ordering things with roses in them... I don't know whther it's the earth smell or the roses that I don't get along with (I suspect the rose), but Burial, Omen and Zombi were really not for me. Burial smelled too fungal with sickly roses to me -sorry!

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First sniff: Dry and woody – it took me several sniffs to pin down the wood, but I swear it smells like pine. It’s a rather cheerful pine for something called Burial, more like walking through a Christmas tree farm (the kind where the trees are still growing and you have to cut your own) than like being lost in the woods.

Wearing: Chilly and very sharply green, a thick crusting of snow over pine branches. The aura is a bit soapy – a lot of the scents I’ve tried on recently have been doing this, and I wonder if it’s something weird going on with my skin, because I don’t think I’ve ever had this problem before. The soapiness faded pretty quickly, but after that I couldn’t smell it unless I stuck my nose against my wrist - a stronger hint of sweet but pale flowers, as if dried petals were scattered on the snow.

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Bural was, sadly, disappointing on me, and will be swapped. I was hoping it wouldn't be quite so rose-y, but it was rather overpowering on me. I'm not sure what it was that turned me off with this one .. the juniper is very strong from the get-go, and it's possible it just doesn't dry well on me.

Sadly, this will be swapped, though I'm sure it would be good for someone who likes rose scents. Probably a good scent for someone who already liked Zombi too, I might add, as they're almost similar, at least on me.

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Tried this one the other day and, sadly, forgot to do the review while it was still fresh.

Fresh on, Burial is very wet. Dark, musky earth and leaf mold. Not a bad thing at all. I really do like it. Unfortunately, there's a note in it that on me brings to mind baby powder. Not to say it smells like baby powder... but it brings it to mind. I'm not sure I can get past it.

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It takes a while for the juniper to settle down in Burial, but it's very apropos for freshly-turned cemetery loam.

After a couple of minutes, the rose with green stems peeks through, and while this never has a distinctly earthen scent for me (compared to Zombi and the like), it's still an earthy scent. This could very definitely be the scent that the gravedigger gets when he turns over a couple of spadefuls after the graveside service, with the scent of flowers on the breeze.

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Burial, I believe, was part of my very first order with the Lab, as an alternative to Zombi. I was figuring that if Zombi was too floral, that I had something else to smell of freshly turned dirt. It's interesting that of all the imp ears that I've gotten, even through swaps, this one has taken me the longest to review. I think that it's probably because the scent seemed a bit too bitter right out of the vial.

In the Bottle

This has a bitter edge to it, which I think I can blame on the juniper. It's got this pungent smell to it that I just don't like, and while I can smell the flowers, and earthy scent underneath, I just can't get past the first strong note.

Wearing It

When I first apply it, the patchouli picks up a lot and takes the bitter edge off of the scent. Unfortunately, this really reminds me of new age shops that go too heavy on the incence and aromatherapy... it reminds me of some bitter scent that makes your eyes tingle, mingling with the thick, sweet, smokey incence. Still not so fond of the juniper. But as it dries out, it does get more earthy, more dirt like. It begins to remind me of digging in my old back yard. It reminds me of planting sage, and oregano, and other herbs; but this isn't the smell of those plants as their oils get on my skin -- this is the smell of handfuls of fresh, fertile earth, when you're packing it down with your hands and it's getting under your nails. The more it dries, the more the light floral scent picks up also; this is yet another oil that likes to turn to baby powder on my skin. So now....earthy, flowerly, bitter baby powder.

The other thing that I'm noticing, the more I sniff at this, is that there seems to be some sort of eucalyptus (and maybe pine and mint) in here. The smell of the eucalyptus is making itself known, and it makes me feel good... reminds me of the tree that my sister and I used to play under when we were children. But that's all underneath the rest of the scent...

This wasn't nearly as floral as Zombi, and if I were looking for a tuned down version of Zombi, this would be it. It reminds me a lot of a strong, old crone type image, someone who has wrinkled hands and spends lots of time in a garden.

I showed this to one of my friends, and am planning on giving her the imp because she liked it so much. On her skin, the patchouli really picked up, and smelled great... My chemistry seems determined to bring out the scents that I'm not so fond of, though. Amusingly enough, it turns out that between Burial and Cheshire Cat, the two scents were enough to get her hooked, and she just recently placed an order. I love how earthy this scent is, but it's not for me; too much juniper, and too many skin chemistry issues.

edited to say: my boyfriend actually really likes the way this smells on me. he can most readily identify the rose and eucalyptus. i'm hoping, though, that when i get my next order the sample of jabberwocky will provide the eucalyptus and the rose (which I'm not so fond of) will be nicely replaced by orange... we'll see.

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Boy, I'm definitely not getting rose of any sort off of this. I agree with hypothermya that Burial definitely has a bitter smell to it in the bottle. Once I got it on and it dried down, however, it smelled a lot like Aveda's Curessence conditioner on me (which I absolutely love!). Bath and Body Works also has a similar-smelling conditioner but I'm at work so don't have the name readily on hand and I can't find it on their website.

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Black, moist dirt in an ancient forest, fresh out of the imp. Strong, dirty and sappy. When it starts to dry, the patchouli starts to sweeten things up a bit.

Burial is a very heavy, dark, mournful scent. I love woods and I love patchouli, and this is a perfect blend of the two. Don't wear this when you're depressed or sad, this is not a blend that will lighten your mood.

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Wow. Having loved Zombi (though it fades far too quickly on me), I thought I would dig Burial as well. It smelled intriguingly earthy, if astringent, in the bottle. Loamy yet clean, very much like the new paint smell that others have mentioned.

Unfortunately, when I put it on it evolved into something that I can only describe as pure chemical cleaner fumes. It was bad enough to make my eyes water and make my throat itch whenever I caught a whiff of it and I had to wash it off after ten minutes. I'm not sure if juniper is the culprit or what, but whatever it is, my body chemistry did NOT jive with it.

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This is proper leafmould in mixed woodland, the sunlight coming through the high branches, as me and my dad put it in sacks as mulch for the garden on a dry summer's day!

First on, the juniper is very potent, and all but drowns out the earth element. As it dries down, however, it fades into the background a little more so that bitter sap and rustle peeks through. It's quite dry, but with a pungent sharpness from the juniper to round it out a little and make it fresh. It has a hint of floral, but in such a way as to smooth and flatter the other comonents, rather than be sugary.

Very subtle and gentle as it dries and whisps away, a touch of the fragility of true beauty; beautiful because it fades and decays.

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This is a rich deep scent of freshly turned earth, laced with a very light sweetness. It also smells vaguely woodsy to me and suggests the smell of the ground on a damp overcast day. As far as earth-scents, I prefer Zombi to wear, but prefer this to use as a home scent.

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I have difficulty grounding, and I don't like to smell too earthy. Burial is great for me because the juniper is almost aquatic, but still green. It makes me think of plants that grow right at the shoreline.

The juniper is definitely the dominant element on me, so I find it hard to pick out the rest. It has good staying power, and it's a good scent for me to wear when I just need to get things done and not get stressed about it.

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I just do not care for this at all. It's a very true earth scent -- bitter, slightly moist, darkest black dirt. Not mud, not clay -- but that soft, black earth that sticks under your fingernails as you comb your hands through it.

On me, it smelled very very bitter, and a bit masculine. It also gave me a very "heavy" feeling. Dark. Unclean. While I can appreciate how evocative this oil is, it just doesn't jive well with my skin or my personality. Wearing it, I felt lethargic and dulled-down.

I am starting to think that earth scents aren't my thing -- no surprise, since I have absolutely no earth in my astrological chart. I ordered Burial thinking that it would add a missing dimension, but instead everything about me just rejects it. I'm going to continue to experiment with earth by trying Zombi, but I don't have high hopes for it -- I think that Virgo may be a safer, less vicerally-earthy bet!

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I thought I wouldnt like this one... wrong AGAIN. I think this is really nice, it has earthiness to it, and yes... it is quite a heavy scent, but for me it is really comforting! I love it. This is what I smell... fresh earth, rose stems & some deep haunting spice. I will get a 5 ml of this on my next order.

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I really wanted to like this one, but the rose scent was too sweet and reminded me of a funeral where the flowers were so sickly sweet that they made you ill. I'll try it one more time, but I think this one's off to the swap pile.

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Juniper? And maybe a hint of pine? It reminds me quite a bit of Loup Garou straight out of the bottle; loamy and piney (or is it junipery?) at the same time. It's oddly refreshing for a scent with a name like Burial. It's also very woodsy instead of earthy as I would have expected. This is looking very promising!

Wet on skin:

This, just like Loup Garou, is pure heaven for me. I could sit here and smell my wrists all day it's so good. It's woodsy and feral smelling like the deep forest, untouched and wild. I can close my eyes and imagine myself deep in a pine forest, hundreds of miles from civilization. This is absolutely wonderful. I'm in love!

Dry down:

It's settled down into a true woodsy scent. Rich, loamy diry underlying towering pine trees with a wash of juniper berries. This is gorgeous! Like Loup Garou, this is everything I could possibly want in a perfume and more.

The bottom line:

Gorgeous. Woodsy. Calming. I'm getting a 10mL bottle of this in my next order!

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Burial was a gift from the lab, but it was far too heavy and bitter for me - no rose or lighter scents at all, just dark dark resin/pine/juniper. I didn't expect it to work on me, as the earthier scents aren't my thing, so I swapped it to Penance who loves it.